‘Spartacus: Vengeance’ Creator Spills Bloody Details of Next Season

Death is only the most natural part of any good season finale, particularly for a series as gory as Starz's 'Spartacus: Vengeance."  Yet when a finale kills of one one, but SIX pivotal characters, viewers might have one or two questions as to how things are going to play out for an additional season...

Thank you, Stephen S. DeKnight!  Immediately following this past Friday's 'Spartacus' finale "Wrath of the Gods," the internet was abuzz with talk from the show's creator himself to spill details of just where the series might go after an incredible battle that saw no less than six pivotal characters drop.  Between, and I kid you not, SPOILER ALERT, Lucretia, Oenomaus, Glaber, Mira, Ashur, and even Ilithyia herself, who's even left to face Spartacus on the battlefield anymore?

Historically, speaking, the defeat of Glaber (Craig Parker) and the fall of Oenomaus (Peter Mensah) are right on track, but the penultimate episode of the season saw the death of Roman Praetor Varinius (Brett Tucker), historically next in like to take on Spartacus' and his rebellion.  With that little divergence in history, Stephen S. DeKnight moved up the narrative's timetable, even casting Spartacus' ultimate nemesis Marcus Crassus (Simon Merrells) for next season , with a young Julius Caesar (Todd Lasance) by his side.  When asked of the divergence in an interview with IGN TV, DeKnight said:

My original plan was to cover every single phase of that [history]. And then once I started looking closer at that I realized that it would become extremely repetitious...the actual history of what Spartacus and his band of rebels did was that they went north and then they went south. Then east. Then west. Then they went back north. They were all over the place with no real plan that you could see. And they broke apart and came back together several times too. So I had to streamline it and cut out a section of people who went after him and give those storylines to one villain, which is Crassus. And to have Crassus be the driving force pursuing Spartacus. Along with Julius Caesar.

But what of Spartacus' and his army, still reeling from the loss of Oenomaus?  After their ultimate victory, where will the next season of 'Spartacus' pick up?  According to DeKnight, "it will pick up about six months after the finale. Spartacus' army has grown more to the size that history tells, so instead of a hundred people, he has thousands of people now. And he has inflicted a lot of injury to the Republic."

But what of all those characters lost, particularly the lovely ladies, Lucy Lawless, Katrina Law and Viva Bianca?  Who could ever replace such radiant figures?  DeKnight tells TVLine in addition to the recently-cast villains, "There will be a couple of Romans who will pop up, there will be three new female characters that will be coming around, and one or two other people from history will make an appearance, but I can’t really say who."

Boy, that's a lot to have figured out considering the next season of 'Spartacus' (whatever it might be subtitled) likely won't debut on Starz until sometime in 2013!  What about you?  Did you get your bloody thrills from the finale' "Wrath of the Gods?"  Who were you most sad to see go?  Tell us what you want from the next season of 'Spartacus in the comments!